[The diabetic patient: renal insufficiency like other kidney failures?]

The number of patients requiring renal replacement therapy because of diabetic nephropathy has been relentlessly increasing, and diabetes mellitus is now the leading cause of end stage renal disease in most Western Countries. Diabetic nephropathy has specificities. First, it tends to progress rapidly toward end stage renal disease. Second, patients with diabetic nephropathy are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, when compared to patients with non diabetic nephropathy; similarly to what has been shown for diabetic patients on dialysis. Third, patients with diabetic nephropathy tend to be more severely anemic than patients with non-diabetic chronic kidney disease. Finally, small studies suggest that patients with diabetic nephropathy could have lower serum concentrations of parathyroid hormone than patients with non-diabetic nephropathy and similar glomerular filtration rate.